SANAA (Dispatches) -- The Yemeni military said Wednesday it fired a barrage of rockets, drones and cruise missiles targeting a U.S. ship in the Red Sea in a “preliminary response” to a recent deadly attack by the U.S. Navy that sank three boats and killed nearly a dozen people off the coast of the Arab country.
Spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement that the country’s naval, missile and drone units took part in the “joint operation.”
He said the targeted U.S. vessel was “providing support” to the occupying regime of Israel during its war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Yemeni forces will not hesitate to exercise the legitimate right to defend their homeland and nation, and proportionally respond to all potential threats and hostile moves,” he said.
Saree sad Yemeni forces will continue to block passage of Israeli-owned and Israel-bound ships in the Red Sea and the Arab Sea until the bloody onslaught against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip stops and the crippling siege on the coastal territory is lifted.
Yemen’s armed forces will continue to allow all international shipping companies to sail their vessels in the waters of both seas, except for ships bound for ports in the Israeli-occupied territories, Saree added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. military claimed that American and British forces had shot down 18 drones and three missiles launched by Yemeni forces towards shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
It was the “largest attack... to date” by the forces in the Red Sea, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.
The U.S. Navy helicopters opened fire on a group of Yemeni boats on December 31 last year, sinking three of them and killing the people on board, according to the U.S. Central Command.
The Ansarullah resistance movement acknowledged that 10 of their fighters were martyred in the confrontation and warned of consequences.
The group said in a statement the boats were performing tasks aimed at “establishing security and stability and protecting maritime navigation.”
In addition, the boats were “performing their humanitarian and moral duty… to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine from passing through the Red Sea.”
This was the latest in Yemen’s retaliatory operations in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid unrelenting Israeli offensives.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
Reports revealed that Israeli shipping companies have already decided to reroute their vessels in fear of attacks by Yemeni forces.
Yemeni forces have also launched missile and drone attacks on targets in the Israeli-occupied territories after the regime’s aggression on Gaza.